Thoughts from someone who remembers when we respected our president and enjoyed the esteem of the world; when our airwaves weren't polluted by rancid, hate-filled diatribes of reckless talking heads; when our Senators and Representatives legislated first for the good of the nation and not special interest agendas; when religion was spiritual, not political; and, the rights of women were respected, not constantly under attack by political panderers. We can do better.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Iran War Abyss Looms

There is a growing fear the Bush Administration is hurtling toward a preemptive strike on Iran and considering using a nuclear option.The United Kingdom's Telegraph reports that Seymour Hersh in the upcoming issue of The New Yorker magazine writes that the "Bush administration is planning to use nuclear weapons against Iranto prevent it from acquiring its own atomic warheads." U.S. combat troops have already been ordered to enter Iran covertly to collect targeting data.The British government "is unlikely to participate directly in any attacks" against Iran and, as their Foreign Secretary Jack Straw puts it, a nuclear attack on Iran would be "completely nuts!"Our only hope to not expand the ill-conceived and costly Iraq war into Iran may be........the U.S. military. Beside their concern at being spread too thin by the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.....the option of using a nuclear tactical weapons has created "serious misgivings among the [U.S.] joint chiefs of staff, and some officers have talked about resigning," Hersh has been told. "The military chiefs sought to remove the nuclear option from the evolving war plans for Iran, without success, a former senior intelligence officer said."Publicly the Bush administration insists it remains committed to diplomacy to solve the Iran crisis. However, with China and Russia unwilling to take any punitive stand against Iran, diplomacy seems to be the same empty gesture made in the U.N. before the Iraq war.And here is the really scary quote from a senior Pentagon consultant who said that Bush believes that he must do "what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do," and "that saving Iran is going to be his legacy."A messianic leader pursuing his legacy....Bin Laden......or.......